A's extend Indians' miserable streak

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Indians' Asdrubal Cabrera, left, argues with home plate umpire Gary Darling after being ejected in the first inning against the Athletics on Wednesday in Cleveland. Cabrera was called out on strikes by Darling.

Officially it was called "Puppy Palooza" wherein fans were invited to bring their dogs to the game.

(Your alternate punchline here).

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Meanwhile, Losingpalooza continues for the hometown team at the old bawl yard.

This one was an 8-4 loss to Oakland, the Indians' 13th loss in their last 14 games. The Tribe has lost all but five of their last 31 games. Since the all-star break they are 11-34, and their record for the season overall vs. left-handed starters is 14-30.

For the first time since the free fall began, Manager Manny Acta pulled a player out of a game for not hustling. Acta benched catcher Carlos Santana after Santana jogged to first after grounding out to third in the sixth inning.

"We can be beat but we can't look beaten. We need everyone to give full effort all the time," said Acta. "I didn't like the way he ran to first a couple times. Carlos and I have talked about it."

Clearly, all the losing is starting is starting to wear on the players.

"I've never been through a stretch this bad anywhere," said reliever Vinnie Pestano. "It's very frustrating. It seems like whatever we do well one day we don't do the other thing well."

Pestano was also unhappy with himself for giving up two runs in the ninth inning.

"I'm just disgusted and embarrassed with myself the way I've been pitching lately," he said. "This is getting pretty old."

There was some good news, however: the Indians -- get this -- scored a run! Four of them, in fact! Listen to that crowd! It's the first time the Indians have scored more than three runs in a game since Aug. 18, a span of nine games.

The four runs are two more than the Indians had scored in their previous three games combined. Two of the runs came in the third inning, which snapped the Indians' streak of 24 consecutive innings without scoring a run.

Maybe Asdrubal Cabrera had the right idea.

The Tribe shortstop got tossed out of the game by home plate umpire Gary Darling after disputing a called third strike in the first inning.

"It was unfortunate," said Acta. "Everyone knows he (Darling) missed it. What makes it bad is that we've talked to Asdrubal about the reason he's struggling is he's chasing pitches. That was a great at bat. He didn't chase a ball out of the zone, but still got called out."

A home run in the third inning by Jason Donald off A's lefty Travis Blackley (5-3) gave the Indians a 1-0 lead. That marked the first time the Indians led in a game since the ninth inning of their game against the Yankees last Saturday. The Indians played 29 consecutive innings without leading, prior to Donald's home run.

Ezequiel Carrera followed Donald's homer with a triple, and Carrera scored on a groundout by Jason Kipnis, his team-leading 63rd RBI.

But it was all Oakland after that as the A's beat the Indians for the seventh time in nine meetings between the two teams.

Tribe starter Corey Kluber pitched well enough to win -- but didn't, thanks to some shoddy defense and a lack of timely hitting by his teammates, who were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

Woof-woof!

Kluber, very quietly, has pitched pretty well of late. Throw out

a messy debut in Kansas City on August 2, and in his other five starts he has a 3.91 ERA. In his last three starts Kluber has a 2.25 ERA, with 15 strikeouts in 16 innings.

Wednesday night Kluber pitched six innings and gave up four runs, three earned, with seven strikeouts and no walks.

"I was very encouraged by the way Cory threw the ball tonight. He pounded the zone on both sides of the plate," said Acta.

Kluber's only bad inning was in the fourth inning, immediately after the Indians had taken a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third.

It was a weird fourth inning for Kluber. It unfolded like this: single, strikeout, double, strikeout, home run, double, strikeout.

The three-run home run by Josh Donaldson, which gave the A's a 4-2 lead.

"The home run was a curveball I left up, and he took advantage of it," said Kluber

Kluber gave up an unearned run in the sixth inning, when Donald, covering second base, allowed a throw from third baseman Jack Hannahan on what should have been a force out to sail untouched between his legs and into right field.

"Donald never saw the throw. He lost it in Hannahan's shirt," said Acta.

Indians pitchers struck out 12, and have fanned 28 in the last two games -- both losses.